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In Zambia, we have been working with the national broadcaster ZNBC and three community radio stations around the country, Yatsani Radio, Radio Chikuni and Radio Liseli, to air live and ‘as live’ debate shows.

So far we’ve tackled the hot topics of poor healthcare, and land ownership – with violence against women, women’s access to employment and education, and women’s health on the agenda for International Women’s Day on 8 March.

It has been a lively and often surprising project, particularly when it comes to the debate audiences. Members of one TV debate were so involved in the discussion that they stayed on after the programmes had finished to ask more questions.

And at Yatsani Radio’s first on-location recording, 400 people from the township of Bauleni in Lusaka braved the rains and assembled at the community hall to take part. Some even had to stand outside due to lack of space.

But getting there has not been without its practical challenges.

One of the main issues for the radio stations was to work out how to produce a live outside broadcast (a recording away from the studio) - for the first time - with up to 400 audience members in a public, and often unpredictable location.

To make sure the programme could be transmitted, Yatsani Radio attached a ‘phone hybrid device’  to their landline, which is basically designed to receive calls from a mobile unit out in the field, and feed the call into the mixing desk and onto the airwaves.

The new machine worked fine – but the problem was the landline. “A terrible buzz on it,” according to the radio technician, Faith Kayula. While they were waiting for the phone company to fix it, they decided to pre-record their first community debate instead.

Illegal meeting claim

Partner station Radio Liseli also saw an eventful first debate. They transmitted live from the Western Province town of Mongu, but were almost taken off air when the local police tried to stop the debate and arrest the organisers.

The police claimed the debate was an illegal meeting, as they had not been informed about it. However, after a couple of frantic calls to locate the Permanent Secretary for the Western Province, he confirmed that he was fully aware of the community debate and asked that people should be left alone to freely discuss issues affecting them.

The team were still able to go to air, attracting a 200-strong audience – some of them policemen who stayed to hear the debate!

On Friday 8

^th

March, all three partner radio stations and ZNBC TV return to the airwaves, with their next round of debates, tackling women’s access to employment and education, domestic violence, and women’s health, as the nation marks International Women’s Day.

In the spotlight will be government and opposition representatives, and even the man who led Zambia to independence, former President Dr Kenneth Kaunda will be making a recorded appearance.

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